April 2, 2015: Sports & Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/2/2015
This is one of the more unusual lots you’ll encounter this annum, a pile of important early cards all subjected to the kind of abuse that gives serious collectors nightmares. Included in the mix are some of the most important cards of the era – 1953 Bowman Color Stan Musial, 1954 Topps Ted Williams No. 250, 1956 Topps Sandy Koufax, and 1958 Topps Mickey Mantle – but unfortunately being hobby royalty didn’t protect these guys any better than any of the other many luminaries, which includes other HOFers, many major stars and the like. Seemingly all have been unceremoniously pasted into some kind of album then removed in a fashion that might be described as unnerving. The four listed examples all present reasonably well, say maybe Good, but the carnage on the back of the card relegates all four and the remaining 240-plus to a technical designation of Poor. Still, the grouping – which includes more than 180 Topps cards from 1953-59 and more than 50 Bowmans from 1953-55 – might have potential for some kind of esoteric art project that involved creating a collage of carefully trimmed and proscribed pasteboards, or maybe as simple as using the reasonable-condition card fronts in a situation when the corners and edges were cleverly matted from view. The final half dozen or so miscellaneous cards includes a pair of 1961 Topps cards of Ronnie Kline and Elmer Valo, each with their earnest mugs callously engraved with ballpoint “stitching” to elicit a disturbing Frankenstein-like effect. Oh, the humanity!
Vintage 1950’s Topps and Bowman Cards including Mantle, Williams, All Abuse Victims (246)
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